Cyber security: An Ever Increasing Dangerous World
That the world can be a dangerous place is a truism or cliche. Nonetheless, it remains a fact of which we must be aware. The advent of the current technological age brings new threats in our lives. During the 1990s hackers were still the stuff of movie thrillers. Now they are very much a part of everyday life. This article is a short exploration into some of the existing cyber threats. We advise seeking further information and recommendations from experts.
Statistics on Cyber crime
The pandemic moved many activities online and as such led to an increase in cyber threats. For example, the damages from data breaches went from $3.86 million to $4.25 million in 2021. Work from home means a bigger number of attack vectors for hackers. This is due to the fact that employees are no longer in the relative safety of the office. Cyber crime during the pandemic went up by 600%, which is huge.
Around 95% of cyber security breaches are the result of human error. Very few come through the exploitation of system vulnerabilities. As an idea, 61% were the result of stolen credentials. Consequently, the weakest point in the chain is the human element.
Malware infections offer us a clear yet scary picture of the increase in cyber threats. In 2009 there were only 12.4 million infections and this number is increasing fast. By 2016 it was up to 580.40 million and in 2018 to 812.67 million. This was before the changes brought by the pandemic. The increase is in part the result of a much bigger number of users and devices. Most people are unaware of these dangers.
Two Types of Threats
One of the most common is social engineering. The best example is the famous ‘Nigerian prince’ scam e-mails. This is when you receive a suspicious message in which your are informed that you can get money if you follow several steps. The hackers will usually ask for personal information, either from your ID Card, an account number or a password. Often enough, they pose as representatives of banks or other financial institutions. In order to force the victims to comply, the e-mail might hint at negative consequences if the instructions are not followed. This practice is also known as ‘phishing’. The hackers are essentially fishing for your information.
Another type is ‘drive-by-download attacks’. In this scenario malicious software is installed on the device without consent. `Thus, it becomes possible to hijack it and build a ‘botnet’ to infect others. Also, they can spy on your activity and steal your online credentials or financial information. It can also lead to ‘ransomware attacks’. They encrypt your data and ask for money in return, usually cryptocurrency, as it cannot be traced.
DDos Attacks
It comes as little surprise that websites are some of the most common targets. Hackers usually use ‘botnets’ to spam the bandwidth of the website. Since the traffic is artificially overloaded, the target usually crashes. Such attacks are very difficult to trace as they come from multiple computers.
How does this happen? The hackers infect devices with malware which turns them into ‘zombies’. They create an entire network which then overflows the bandwidth of the website. In fact, there are entire ‘businesses’ which rent out these networks to other criminals. Users find out that their devices were unknowingly part of an act of cyber crime.
Some Security Advice
Firstly, keep your software up to date. This ensures that your antivirus can protect you by using the latest patches. Cyberspace evolves at an ever increasing pace and this means there are always new threats. The software you are using needs to be aware of these changes so it can deal with them properly.
Secondly, always check the veracity of e-mails. Before replying to or opening the attachment in an e-mail always check the sender. Make sure they have an institutional address. Also, do not click on links from unknown sites. Even if their promises are amazing. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is a scam. You are your own last line of defence, hence you must be prudent.
Conclusions
We are now fully in the digital age. We are both surrounded by and consume large amounts of information. Temptations will arise at every corner and there will always be individuals willing to exploit this fact. Consequently, we owe it to ourselves to be prudent. Humans are the weakest link in the security chain, but this can be eased up by a better understanding of cyber threats. Take the extra-time to analyse an e-mail before opening it. Take the extra-time to properly set-up the security on your device. Avoid the big bad wolf on the internet.
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Further reading
Originally published at https://www.theworldbriefly.com on February 21, 2022.